Reclassification of Salegentibacter catena Ying et al. 2007 as Salinimicrobium catena gen. nov., comb. nov. and description of Salinimicrobium xinjiangense sp. nov., a halophilic bacterium isolated from Xinjiang province in China.

A Gram-negative, non-motile and moderately halophilic rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain BH206(T), was isolated from a saline lake of Xinjiang province in China. The isolate showed catalase-positive and oxidase-negative reactions and did not reduce nitrate. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the isolate was most closely related to [Salegentibacter] catena HY1(T) with 95.8 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, and formed a tight phyletic group with [Salegentibacter] catena HY1(T) with a bootstrap value of 99 % within the family Flavobacteriaceae. However, strain BH206(T) and [Salegentibacter] catena HY1(T) formed a phyletic lineage distinct from other Salegentibacter species. The 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities of strain BH206(T) with other related type species were lower than 94.6 %. On the basis of physiological and molecular properties, it is clear that [Salegentibacter] catena should be reclassified in the new genus Salinimicrobium as Salinimicrobium catena gen. nov., comb. nov. (type strain HY1(T)=CGMCC 1.6101(T)=JCM 14015(T)) and that strain BH206(T) represents a novel species within the genus Salinimicrobium, for which the name Salinimicrobium xinjiangense sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of Salinimicrobium xinjiangense is BH206(T) (=KCTC 12883(T)=DSM 19287(T)).